


Reunion

by theWickedWitchofFeels



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Death, F/F, Sadness, Swan Queen Week, better late than never, dark swan sort of, i know its late, season 5 speculation, swan queen week day 7: trapped together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 13:11:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4480397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theWickedWitchofFeels/pseuds/theWickedWitchofFeels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Swan Queen Week Day 7: Trapped Together</p><p>So this idea just kind of occurred to me. I know it's way late for Swan Queen Week but...</p><p>Warning: Some feels. </p><p>(note: Regina at one point quotes Carmilla)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

The Dark One lifted her chin proudly in spite of the jeers being thrown her way by the crowd. Her eyes shone coldly, but it was only a shield; inside she was terrified. 

“For her crimes, the Dark One formerly known as Emma Swan will be executed by drowning.” King Arthur intoned. At his elbow, Mary Margaret and David gasped in horror, but they could do nothing. Emma’s heart thudded as knights seized her chains and pulled her towards the thing that would seal her doom, a large wooden chest balanced at the edge of the pier. 

Emma threw her weight back against them, trying to get free but only managing to twist her wrists painfully and nearly rub them raw. They could not know, but something was different - she had to get free - “HELP!” 

A metal-clad hand hit her, hard, knocking her face first into the chest. Stars swam in front of her, but she struggled to remain conscious. Vaguely, she heard a commotion that seemed to be preventing the knights from closing the lid of her chest.

“NO! LET HER GO!” A furious voice rang out, and petite body ran into the knights full-force, shoving one clear off the dock and blasting the other two back into the crowd with magic. 

Emma blinked, propping herself up to look out. Regina Mills stood between the crowd and the chest, a fireball blazing on her hand. 

“What is the meaning of this?” King Arthur roared. “You dare defy your King?” 

“I am the Queen Regina, formerly known as the Evil Queen!” Regina yelled back. “So, yes I do!” 

King Arthur’s rasping, humorless laugh made Emma’s toes curl in fear for Regina. “I know evil when I see it. The one you protect is evil, and evil you are no longer.” 

“She’s not the Dark One anymore.” Regina replied.

“Dark One or not, she has made herself the scourge of my kingdom, and she must pay.” King Arthur narrowed his eyes at her, then waved at his knights. “Let her join the Dark One in her tomb.”

“NO!” Emma shouted. She struggled desperately at her bonds, but succeeded only in making her chest’s position on the edge more precarious. She watched in horror as the knights swarmed Regina; she fought furiously with magic and fists but they overpowered her, throwing her into the chest beside Emma and slamming the lid shut before she could escape. Emma barely got time to register her presence before someone locked the chest and gave it a hard shove over the edge of the pier. 

They landed in the water below with a huge splash and an incoherent cry from both women. Almost immediately, water began seeping into the chest as they sank. The ocean here by the dock wasn’t terribly deep, so the pressure wouldn’t be enough to crush the chest. Instead, they could only watch as the chest slowly filled with water.

It was pitch-dark inside the chest. Emma blinked through the darkness; the Dark One magic had given her keen sight, and with the residual magic she could almost make out Regina’s face, pressed up against the wood. 

“You did it…” Emma said gently. 

Regina’s eyes were tightly closed, her heart pounding in her chest. Desperately, she pulled her hands from the gradually rising water around her waist and felt in the dark for any way of opening the chest, even though it would be nearly impossible to reach the surface in time, and Emma would almost certainly -

Emma. A chill ran down Regina’s spine. 

“Regina, it’s no use. They locked it from the outside.” Emma’s breathing was ragged, labored.

“We can’t die like this - “ Regina clawed at the inside of the chest. “Henry -”

“Is he here?” Emma asked quietly. 

Regina stopped her efforts. “No. He’s in Storybrooke staying with Belle and Gold. After Mary Margaret and David get back I imagine they’ll take care of him.” 

A choked sob wracked Regina’s body. Emma shifted in the now ribcage-deep water, wanting desperately to hold Regina but her bonds making that impossible.

“Regina...it’s gonna be okay…”

“Emma, no…” Regina’s voice was flat, tiny. It was so un-Regina that it scared Emma more than anything else. 

Soft hands touched Emma’s face in the dark, caressing her cheekbones and twining fingers in her hair, pulling it out of its tight bun and letting it flow free, filling the chest with the scent of cinnamon. 

“I missed you so much, Emma. Why, Emma...why?” Regina whispered hoarsely. 

“Because I knew that...more than anything...I absolutely could not watch you suffer again.” 

Regina drew a shaky breath. “I never realized what my happy ending was until it was ripped from me.”

Emma’s heart filled with shame, the memory of her crushing Robin’s heart in the woods springing to mind. “Regina, I’m so sorry - “ 

“No, you idiot. Not Robin, never Robin. He was a good man, but…” Regina’s hands clasped Emma’s cheeks. “I have never been in love, and never shall, unless it be with you.”

Emma’s chest burned unbearably, and she found Regina’s lips in the darkness with her own. The water had risen to lap at their chests, their chins - 

Regina broke free, tipping back her head to breathe in the last few inches of air left. This was it. 

“Emma, I’m…”

“Hey.” Emma sought out Regina’s eyes with hers. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

And even as the water closed over their heads and their life’s-breath escaped them, their lips met. The last thing Emma knew was the feeling of Regina’s arms snugly around her and her warm lips on hers.

 

\---

 

“I wish...I wish my moms were with me right now!” Henry cried, clutching the small gem to his heart. 

Belle and Ruby came up behind him, still panting from their run here after finding the magical wishing star in Gold’s shop. Henry stiffened, paying them little mind as a whirlpool appeared in the water offshore, just as Emma had once described when it was she and Elsa on the beach, instead of Henry and his two companions - 

A huge, waterlogged chest appeared on the beach. Henry’s breath caught. 

“MOM!” 

Belle and Ruby exchanged worried looks. There was no answering “HENRY!” or sounds of knocking from inside the chest. 

Henry ran to the huge wooden object. At its utter silence, his heart seemed to freeze in panic - but he had to try, they couldn’t be, it had to be a mistake - he rifled around in his bag for Regina’s skeleton keys that he’d taken to use for Operation Mongoose, fit one into the lock and twisted. 

“Mom?” He opened the chest.

It was if someone had come up and ripped out his heart again, only a hundred times worse. His legs wavered and he collapsed to his knees in the sand, sobs wracking his body. 

Ruby and Belle rushed to his side, and a terrible sight met their eyes. It was Regina and Emma, all right; but limp, and utterly lifeless. Ruby stood hesitantly and pressed fingers first to Regina’s neck, then Emma’s. Neither of them had a pulse, and their skin was cold to the touch. 

They had died twined together, Emma still bound hand and foot but Regina free and wrapped intimately with her, their faces just inches apart as if they had been kissing when death claimed them instead. Their eyes were closed peacefully, as if they were only asleep.

“Mom?” Henry’s voice was tiny like the boy he had once been. “Mom?”

There was no answer. 

“We were too late…” Belle whispered.

“Look at Emma,” Ruby said quietly. Emma’s skin no longer shone with the odd incandescence that the Dark Curse had given her. “She...wasn’t the Dark One anymore. She died as Emma.” 

Henry drew a quiet breath and planted a kiss to each of his mothers’ cold cheeks.

“Operation Mongoose is complete. I love you.”


End file.
